Stop the presses: We have a new leader in the “Most pathetically feckless Ivy League president” Olympics
Spoiler alert: It’s NOT Columbia’s increasingly embattled president!
That’s right. The current worst of the worst among Ivy League presidents – the one making the hollowest of threats to student protesters while doing nothing to protect Jewish students from harassment – and the one whom Columbia’s president (and all other Ivy League presidents) can now point to when criticized for fecklessness, and say, with honesty and conviction, “Well at least I’m not as feckless as HIM” is .... drum roll please ...
YALE president Peter Salovey.
By a WIDE margin in fact. My current X feed includes the following:
https://twitter.com/conor64/status/1782147619223117930
This is harassment. This is hate. Yale should be ashamed that they have let this occur. But so far – the response from the administration has been –nothing. But that’s just the start. How about:
https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1782167337682006209
And
https://twitter.com/AvivaKlompas/status/1782238179166183747
There is no world in which what is shown in these two videos is not antisemitic harassment. How hard would it be for Yale to identify the students doing the harassment? Gee – they might have to – send security there to identify them! These students should be immediately suspended. IMMEDIATELY. How small must Salovey’s cahones be that he has not taken action already?
Oh wait. Here is the evidence of how small they are!
Some choice quotes from the article:
“Hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters gathered in Yale’s Beinecke Plaza Friday night, and — unlike on Columbia’s campus the day before — none were arrested, police backed down, and the university let tenters stay put.”
The protesters are in clear violation of Yale’s policies. And yet – no action from the Yale administration. In fact, they announced that there would be no arrests. Gee. THAT will teach all Yale students a lesson about the importance of not violating the student code of conduct, eh! Oh wait. I’m wrong. There WAS some action on the part of the administration:
“For much of the night, Yale Police signaled that it planned to remove protesters from the plaza starting at 11 p.m. On Monday, the first day of protests this week, Yale Police issued warnings to protesters who were occupying the same space in front of the Schwarzman Center at 10:40 p.m., and the organizers decided to heed those warnings and disperse.
On Friday night, organizers made clear that they would not listen to those warnings, meaning that some protesters would be arrested.
Indeed, organizers told the Independent that at different points in the night Yale administrators, including Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis, told organizers that any Yale College seniors in the group who failed to disperse and were arrested may not be able to walk at graduation or may face other disciplinary action.
At one point Lewis and other Yale administrations offered to speak with organizers and call off arrests if they removed the tents in the plaza. Organizers refused.
Similarly, supporters of the Yale organizers from New Haven, including members of Jewish Voice for Peace, were at the protest and also signaled that they were ready to be arrested by Yale Police.”
Yes – you read it right. A dean told the protesters that if they did not end the protest, there would be arrests, and any seniors would not be able to walk at graduation (or face other disciplinary action). The students decided to call the administration’s bluff, and a bluff is what it turned out to be. I think Salovey needs to go back and take Intro Psych — the part where it is explained that threats mean nothing if those who are threatened know you won’t actually do anything. And in fact – not carrying through on a discipline threat simply emboldens rule breakers to escalate their violations of what are obviously no longer real rules.
But Salovey DID have something serious to say about all of this, as is reported in this article.
First, before getting to Salovey’s statement – maybe worth noting that a Jewish student was actually attacked and had to go to the hospital. But whatever, right.
Here’s Salovey’s money quote:
“Yale does not tolerate actions, including remarks, that threaten, harass, or intimidate members of the university’s Jewish, Muslim, and other communities,” he added. “The Yale Police Department is investigating each report, and we will take action when appropriate, including making referrals for student discipline.”
First – obviously Yale DOES tolerate actions that threaten, harass, and intimidate the university’s JEWISH community. But note Salovey’s pitiable need to also talk about intimidation of the Muslim community. I don’t know about you – but I don’t see much threatening and harassment and intimidation of anyone but Jews here. But yeah — it would be impolite to talk about antisemitism without always also mentioning something about Muslims.
Maybe by tomorrow (Tuesday, April 22) Yale will have grown a pair – in which case, this posting will be taken down. We’ll see.***************
Update: Monday morning. Yale finally took action to remove the protesters, but only after several deadlines came and went and after the administration agreed to meet with the protesters — who wouldn’t take “yes” for an answer. The Yale Daily News has a regularly updated report.
Don’t these students have classes and exams? Where do they get all this free time?